How many of you have had an engine failure?

cocolos said:
The closest I got was a drop of 400rpm. I switched tanks went full rich and power was restored. I was at 9.5k feet right over an airport. I landed had a mechanic help investigate but found nothing a miss. Two months later the airplane went down with another member of our club on takeoff. Thankfully he had a 10k hour CFII next to him. They both got hospitalized but I believe that was mostly because we didn't have shoulder belts otherwise I believe they would have walked away.
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Did they ever find a cause for it?
 
Ryanb said:
What plane were you in?
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Tecnam P92.
The plane has both mechanical and electric fuel pumps. As per the checklist when I throttled back to do a 500 fpm descent, I turned on the fuel pump. It flooded the engine. Since the prop was still turning I didn't even realize I was flying a glider until I passed through 6,500 ft. The only thing that indicated anything was wrong was the tach had gone whonky, but the tack is always acting up, so I cross checked a couple of other instruments and noted the oil temperature was moving way down. Throttle forward, nada.
The second or third item on the restart checklist is "Turn on electric fuel pump" so any chance I had for a restart went right down the tubes.
The only angst during the entire process was when I turned final, the plane instantly slowed 10 kts and realized I had more headwind and more crosswind than I estimated. But the VASI indicated I was still high, so I just pushed the nose down, picked up some speed, and flew the glide slope.
 
Engine power roll back due to fuel starvation. On takeoff reaching traffic pattern altitude. Returned to landing with no power and windmilling engine, enough power recoverd on the ground to taxi, but could not run up to mag check power.

Found air sucked into the fuel system at the fuel strainer at high fuel flow.
 
I've had the fan stop twice when I didn't expect it, got it restarted on both occasions. Both time it was an issue switching tanks.

1st one a upholstery screw jammed up the tank selector. CFI took control of the plane, we were within gliding distance of the airport. I told him I would get the tanks swapped or break the switch. Luckily, the screw popped before the switch did and the fan started back up.

2nd time was over Kansas in my new to me Bonanza, I thought I pointed the front of the switch towards the tank I wanted, so while on the left tank, I turned the selector counter clockwise. Fan Stopped, immediately realized what I'd done and swapped it back over.

The only part of flying I dislike is switching tanks.
 
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I had a rope break on my last glider winch launch last October. Does that count??

Just pitched over, hit the spoilers and landed on the remaining runway.
 
As important are the total hours you've flown when they occurred. Mine occurred with over 4000 hours flown, Engine quit in mooney 201 taking off from teterboro 1985. Bad annual , idiot mechanic did not carefully check fuel system. Filter under pilots seat full of crap. Water in gas. Landed back on same runway, gear down .....just before I touched. Took up entire runway. Very lucky. 2. Stearman made real expensive noise suddenly over eastern shore of maryland. At 1500 feet, chopped throttle, landed in field of mown corn. Again, lousy mechanic who had set valves but had not tightened nuts correctly. ( same mechanic as above, also a drunk) I had flown at night a few times single engine before this. Afterwards, NEVER! (Both happened shortly after he'd annualed each one!)
 
Never had one fail in flight. I did have to shut the RH engine down on short final for a single engine landing with my fathers 310L many years ago. The throttle cable broke and the engine stayed at cruise power setting.
 
Cessna 206 on second leg of trip from Tacoma WA to Arapaho County CO. Topped off long-range tanks at Mountain Home ID and flew at reduced power settings, expecting good reserve at destination.

But either winds aloft were not as predicted, or my fuel management was off, or both, and both fuel indicators were at zero over northern CO. At 5k AGL, the left tank ran dry and engine died. Propeller kept windmilling, and switching to right tank restarted engine.

I reported low fuel to Denver Approach and they directed me straight to Stapleton International, Runway 26R. Fortunately, we all walked away and flew again the next day.

In retrospect, the big lesson was not to ignore red flags, even though running late and with people waiting at the destination. I should have called off the flight plan and landed early to refuel. Secondary lesson was the value of training in Aviate • Navigate • Communicate, and in that order.
 
kmead said:
Never had one fail in flight. I did have to shut the RH engine down on short final for a single engine landing with my fathers 310L many years ago. The throttle cable broke and the engine stayed at cruise power setting.
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Experienced the same in a Duke right after an engine swap. Turned out the cable had not been properly secured. Got exciting for a second or two before killing that engine.
 
No engines out for me yet, knock on wood.

Came real close a time or two, but not completely out. :fcross:
 
DennisBauer said:
Cessna 206 on second leg of trip from Tacoma WA to Arapaho County CO. Topped off long-range tanks at Mountain Home ID and flew at reduced power settings, expecting good reserve at destination.

But either winds aloft were not as predicted, or my fuel management was off, or both, and both fuel indicators were at zero over northern CO. At 5k AGL, the left tank ran dry and engine died. Propeller kept windmilling, and switching to right tank restarted engine.

I reported low fuel to Denver Approach and they directed me straight to Stapleton International, Runway 26R. Fortunately, we all walked away and flew again the next day.

In retrospect, the big lesson was not to ignore red flags, even though running late and with people waiting at the destination. I should have called off the flight plan and landed early to refuel. Secondary lesson was the value of training in Aviate • Navigate • Communicate, and in that order.
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Good post. Welcome to PoA.
 
Jimmy cooper said:
As important are the total hours you've flown when they occurred. Mine occurred with over 4000 hours flown, Engine quit in mooney 201 taking off from teterboro 1985. Bad annual , idiot mechanic did not carefully check fuel system. Filter under pilots seat full of crap. Water in gas. Landed back on same runway, gear down .....just before I touched. Took up entire runway. Very lucky. 2. Stearman made real expensive noise suddenly over eastern shore of maryland. At 1500 feet, chopped throttle, landed in field of mown corn. Again, lousy mechanic who had set valves but had not tightened nuts correctly. ( same mechanic as above, also a drunk) I had flown at night a few times single engine before this. Afterwards, NEVER! (Both happened shortly after he'd annualed each one!)
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1 Why continue using this guy?
2 Why does he still have an A&P?
 
Every airborne engine "failure" I've had was due to the person in the right seat with the letters "CFI" or "CFII" after his/her name. Boy, the presence of those people can be rough on engines. :D

I have cancelled a couple flights when I couldn't clear a fouled plug during run-up.
 
In 17,000 hours I've had just ONE ! It was in a C-310 and it was self inflicted due to mismanagement of the fuel selector. The bulk of my time however is in turbine equipment though.
 
5000+ hours.

Two.

Rope break on my last practice flight before taking the CFIG test. Did a 180 and back onto the runway with about 200' of rope dragging behind.

Double ignition failure on a 172. One mag coil failed and caused the other mag plugs to lead up and foul. Before you say it can't happen, review how the Cont O300D ignition is wired. One mag fires all the top plugs, the other mag fires all the bottom plugs. If top mag fails, resultant exhaust stream full of lead out the bottom exhaust valve passes right over the bottom plugs and fouls them faster than you can say, "What the f...."

Jim
 
5.

Engine wouldn't start, bad battery.
 
Engine outs don't scare me. With careful planning up front and considering all your contigency plans you can always find somewhere safe to land. If you can't and didn't plan for it... well then you deserve to die.
 
evapilotaz said:
John galt aka troll no one deserves to die.
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and when your flying is limited to airplane video games, no one has to. I remember seeing microsoft flight simulator years ago and the whole world outside was a flat grid. An engine failure would be a piece of cake.
 
CharlieTango said:
Flying my 'fat' ultralight a friend raised me on the CTAF and talked me into shutting down and soaring a while. After a time I was in trouble and my 2-stroke Rotax wouldn't restart. I didn't yet have my choke's hooked up to the toggles on my panel and had to hand prop to start.

I couldn't make a field and it never occurred to me to pull my 2nd Chantz chute so I landed on some steep terrain.
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Interesting. I watched my dad do basically the exact same thing when I was maybe 10. He shut the engine down on his two stroke fat ultralight and was planning on gliding to a landing. Misjudged things and planted it into the side of the rising terrain just before the runway. Made a hell of a bang and he limped around for about a week but was otherwise fine. The Kolb was toast.
 
kgruber said:
I have had two PT6-41s fail on me, both in a King Air 200. One was at cruise and one was about 1000 feet off the ground on climb out.

Nobody counts PT6 engine failures. Their supposed "reliability" stems from the fact that almost 100% of them are installed on King Airs, and the pilots simply return that fat safe winged airplane back to base.
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PT6's are used in a lot of other applications. The PA46T's, Pilatus, TBM, Cheyenne. The occasional 210. There are loads of King Airs out there but certainly not "almost 100%" of the PT6's.
John Galt said:
Engine outs don't scare me. With careful planning up front and considering all your contigency plans you can always find somewhere safe to land. If you can't and didn't plan for it... well then you deserve to die.
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Wow.. just... wow. :dunno:
 
I had a valve lifter self destruct over the middle of Lake Michigan coming back from Osh about 5 years ago.

Nothing exciting - lost about 5 knots of airspeed.
 
I've figured it out....

John Galt is ......


EdFred
:heli:
 
One. Sorta. Scud running 500 feet above a railroad surrounded by nothing by trees. All of a sudden it got real quiet. Two sets of hands were flying around from carb heat to fuel selector to mags to throttle... After a couple seconds it caught and ran and we continued on with no further problems. Best guess was carb ice.
 
Two, in helicopters.

One during primary training approximately 40 hours of experience. Spun main bearing, sheared case through bolts, broke the exhaust and intake. No other damage.

One while giving passenger tours, whopping 200 hours of experience. Sheared a bolt between engine and transmission, all kinds of metal in the oil, loss of oil pressure, sheared 3 out of six starter to drive gear bolts, a few other things I don't remember didn't get to see the damage.

I had a buddy I worked with drop a valve and wipe out the turbo while giving passenger tours.

In all three cases the aircraft made an autorotative decent with power recovery because if the engine is still running why not (in my cases is was just enough engine power to assist the auto)! In all three cases no one was hurt and other then engine damage no other damage occured. In all three cases these events happened in the venerable Bell 47. I would not want to be in any other helicopter in an emergency.
 
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I've never lost my engine during flight. I have known pilots who have, though. Let me hijack this thread for a moment to preach.

My husband's boss was a good pilot. When black oil started hitting his windscreen, he knew his engine was failing, so he turned toward the airport and declared an emergency. There were empty fields nearby, but he wanted to get back home. When he lost all power, he went into trees a few miles from the end of the runway. Didn't survive.

Another day, Hubby was doing airwork when he heard a pilot whose engine was not making enough power. The pilot declared an emergency and got vectors to an airport. Knowing he was nearby, Hubby flew the disabled aircraft's route, examining every field along the way where a plane could have safely put down, hoping to be able to radio it's destination. The aircraft was not in any of them. He finally found the crash site flames, not far from the targeted airport. Once again, the pilot did not survive.

Airplane engine failures don't happen often. The thing to remember, if it does happen, is that you don't own the plane any longer. It is owned, at that minute, by the insurance company and its only function is to take the pilot to a survivable landing. Anywhere.

/end of hijack.
 
AuntPeggy said:
Airplane engine failures don't happen often. The thing to remember, if it does happen, is that you don't own the plane any longer. It is owned, at that minute, by the insurance company and its only function is to take the pilot to a survivable landing. Anywhere.
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That is a very interesting way of looking at it, and one I never thought of before. Thanks for posting that!
 
I remember reading that line a long time ago when I first started training, probably over on StudentPilot. And it has stuck with me ever since. It applies also to landing gear not coming down. The only thing you need to do is immediately protect yourself and others on the ground. The aircraft is an inanimate object owned by your insurance company.
 
22k hours, 1 PT-6 failure followed by subsequent fire in a Dash 7. We were cruising along, fat dumb and happy going from JFK to ALB on the last leg of the day at around 2300. We were about 40 miles out when we felt an abrupt yaw and a bunch of annunciator lights for the number 4 engine coming on. An engine failure wasn't even an emergency in that airplane, but the fire caused some major pucker, especially when neither bottle extinguished it. It finally went out on it's own, negating the need to land on the thruway ;). We were able to make a safe landing at KALB. After we got to the gate, the contract maintenance guy asked me to remove the prop brake. After informing him that there wasn't one, he showed me the prop. Normally, the prop blades are kind of loose and wiggly and the prop can be easily rotated by hand. In this case, I could rock the airplane with a prop blade!

The prop gearbox had chipped a tooth, seizing it abruptly, which in turn blew apart the power turbine. The fire was caused by a ruptured oil line to the prop governer or a seal (I never found out exactly) and the gearbox oil leaked onto the hot stacks and ignited. This explains why we never got a fire warning nor were the bottles able to put it out, as that area is an unprotected part, but there was NO doubt it was on fire, as I could see it reflected in the FO's instruments. The flight attendant said that the flames were trailing past her in her jumpseat in the aft cabin!

It actually made the papers in Albany the next day.......
 
One, sort of. Rental 172. I was high over the threshold, went to do a go around and the engine would not go above idle. Slipped it in on the 8,000 foot runway and shut it down once clear of the active. Fuel was POURING out of the engine cowling. A fuel line had come loose toward the end of a 2 hour night flight.

Should this have happened? I doubt it. (I don't know what the failure mode was. Could have been an improperly installed fuel line. It could have been a hidden manufacturing flaw. I never found out.)
Something I could have caught on pre-flight? Only if I had taken the engine cowling off and checked every connection.

I probably had 80 hours when it happened. I have 500 now.
 
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This is my tally so far over 48 years...

In piston singles: 3 partial (mag failure in C150/150 towing gliders, induction leak in C207 and swallowed valve in Mooney) and 1 total (mag switch failure in C172).
In piston twins: 2 partial (First flight on factory reman engine on C421 and swallowed valve on C411) and 1 total (first flight on Factory Reman engine on above mentioned C411).
In turboprop twins: 3 precautionary shutdowns (Propeller failure on MU2, loss of oil pressure in Cheyenne III and KA200).
In transport category jets: 1 total failures on startup on Lear 35, 3 precautionary shutdowns (one on B737, two on G100).

As others have said, it's not a matter of IF, it's a question of when.
 
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Came close once in a rented 182.. we were flying the LPV approach into MYF, and when we reduced power, we heard a funny vibration.. it didn't change when we fiddled with the throttle, so we figured it was nothing.. after landing and taxiing back, i got out, and the entire left side of the plane was streaked with oil, as well as a large dinner plate sized puddle under the cowl. Mx caught up with me a couple days later, and told me the heater muff had rubbed a hole in the oil pan.
 
Z06_Mir said:
PT6's are used in a lot of other applications. The PA46T's, Pilatus, TBM, Cheyenne. The occasional 210. There are loads of King Airs out there but certainly not "almost 100%" of the PT6's.
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Just for your fund of trivial knowledge, the occasional 210 has a Rolls/Allison 250 - there used to be one parked near the 'kota when I was based at BJC.

I think Grumman also built a PT-6 powered twin. We had one lose oil over the Gulf of Mexico enroute from Cuidad del Carmen to New Orleans, they ended up in Brownsville for repairs...all I know for sure is that it wasn't easy to carry an unconscious person in a liter on board and the air conditioning was inadequate for being on the ground in Mexico...

Oh, and I've had a partial engine failure while IFR over an overcast. A coil decided it didn't want to work anymore and yes, it had given hints that I didn't pay sufficient attention to - a rough idle after arrival immediately prior to the flight w/the failure - it started and went through a run-up just fine. The coil only failed after it got hot. Even after the failure in flight the A&P had to get it hot on the ground before it failed again.
 
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Two in the same day. Only two. And due to an interesting reason, seemingly so obvious yet not routinely taught, with nothing major wrong with

the a/c.

The day prior to the two flights it had snowed 10" or so. We went out to do a flight in a C-150. It had gotten down to about 12F or so that

night. We dusted the plane off, pre-flighted it, fueled it, sumped it... etc. Took off, flew 40 nm west at around 4500' and, upon entering a

descent to a field about 10 nm west, the engine windmilled instantly. We Notified tower, she flew a nice deadstick into an airport a few miles

ahead while I worked the radio a little and confirmed the engine dead. An A&P was on hand there and suggested it must have been carb ice. We

knew it was not carb ice. We had applied carb heat more than once during cruise, and prior to initiating descent. It was on and off while

adjusting mixture, throttle, and the fuel valve. all of which, over about a minute or two, during descent, prior to confirming it dead around

2000' agl. It did start for the A&P however; and ran up quite well. we were perplexed, called the FBO, got confirmation from both the on-site

A&P and the home A&P that it was a fluke, most likely carb ice. I did not feel comfortable with that diagnosis at all. No change took place

when applying heat at any time.

Still concerned, we pre-flighted, loaded up, fired up, and took off. This time, it was my leg. I initialized a climb and decided to circle

above the airport until reaching 5500' prior to heading east. Heading east, we got within about 20 nm of our destination, lowered the nose

slightly, applied carb heat, etc. It went silent again. This time, we were abeam an airport about 90 degrees due south of our heading about 8

miles away. We turned that way and requested radar vectors. With the assistance of ATC, we got nice vectors to a long left downwind leg to a

small airport covered in snow. Being a little high on downwind, I pulled the barn-doors down on base/final, gave it a slip, and were on the

ground in no time. Then... The engine started up as soon as the mains hit the snow of the runway.

Don't get me wrong, it was nice to have to do a soft-field taxi to the tarmac with a running engine... It's just that it makes you look bad in

your head when you declare, then taxi up with a running engine. lol.

Needless to say, we were not flying the plane back. We called, the FBO came, picked us up, and brought their A&p. The A&P was actually an A&I.

He picked up the wing, near the tip and shook it. You could hear it sound like a cooler with ice/water mixed in it being shaken.

The fuel caps had leaked, melting snow from the day before into the wing tanks. It had re-frozen during the night with temps down to 10/12

degrees. Even though all three sumps had been drained and checked, there was no water in the fuel prior to both flights. It was all in the form

of ice in the tanks. When we lowered the nose, the ice would shift, and cover up the fuel intakes, resulting in the engine loss. As soon as we

hit the runway, with a high AOA, it shook loose, and the engine fired back up.

Think about Water taking on the form of ice in the fuel. It was never mentioned to either of us prior to that, and I don't think a lot of people

do. I know maintenance is high on A/C but maaybe we should check those fuel cap seals more often too.

Little bit of insight. At least all turned out well. I guess that's why my Flight Instructor called the PPL a 'license to learn.'
 
I've had a total failure in a C-182N.

I was performing a run-up at the end of the taxiway before departure. Ironically, I looked at the departure end trees that day and have that image stuck in my brain. We were taking off on 26 at KVKX

The engine quit when I went to check the 2nd mag. It seemed like it needed fuel, but everything checked OK. We looked at the checklist a dozen times, but it wouldn't catch although it sounded like it wanted to run.

I was told it was loose vacuum hose. I'm glad it decided to come off during run-up and not at Vr.
 
Interesting thread.

In 20 years and ~2200 hours I've had two rough engines that required precautionary landings.

One in the Pathfinder, (Lyc. O-540) after idling for a long, long time due to a pop-up VIP TFR in Tutusville, FL.

I took off, everything got very rough, JPI showed a problem with #2, told the tower we needed to land. It was still making power (hooray for 6 cylinders), so I didn't declare, and landed normally. Pulled and cleaned all 12 spark plugs, reinstalled, and we were off.

Once last year, when the engine went into auto-rough in cruise flight. Things smoothed out with a power reduction, and it was making enough power to maintain flight at reduced speed. Landed normally.

Checked all plugs -- tested okay. I replaced them all anyway. Checked the mags -- both fine. Timed 'em anyway. All compressions fine. Fuel filters clean.

We never found a definitive answer to that one, and it's never done it again. Best guess is a bad plug, or contaminated gas.

Oh, and we had a mag completely die, discovered on the ground, thankfully. Turned the key to the right mag, and it got real quiet.
 
When I started on these boards I got the impression that mechanical failures don't happen too often, next to never but now I realize that isn't true.
 
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